[Suggestion] Reposition Berserker

Grim Dawn Ideas and Feedback
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So recently I’ve been reviewing my builds, seeing what devotions I use a bit too much and which I may have just completely skipped over, when I noticed that among 38 characters, not one uses the Berserker devotion. I went back to all my characters using axes, all characters built around physical, all characters built around bleeding…and in every single case it would take a hefty amount of devotion gymnastics and some pretty unsavoury sacrifices to squeeze berserker into essentially any build that meets the criteria.

Now, obviously, just like Rhowan’s Scepter, Berserker is a rather niche devotion. It only affects axes, and only benefits users of Physical or Bleeding. That’s already going to cut down on its appeal drastically. The main issue with it is, though, that 1) the devotion is inefficient, requiring an investment of 6 points for a 5 Affinity return), 2) the devotion rewards the completely wrong types of Affinity for most builds that would use it, and 3) the bonuses are not particularly spectacular to go out of your way to pick the devotion up, considering points 1) and 2)

Point 2) though, is where I think Berserker needs some serious adjustment. If you’re a bleed-focused build, you’re likely going for Mogdrogen as your T3. That makes the requirement of 5 Ascendant 5 Eldritch pretty reasonable, those are already Affinities you’re going for. But then you invest 6 points into Berserker to get only 3 Eldritch out of it for your Mogdrogen progress. The 2 Chaos you get does not benefit you in that respect. It does line up nicely with Huntress at least, so if you’re a bleed build, going for Mogdrogen AND using axes, you can use Berserker. It’s a niche of a niche but ok. We’ve found a use.

But thankfully, Berserker isn’t limited to just bleed. In fact, only 2 points out of the 6 it takes actively promote bleed. There’s also some support for Physical. So cool, right? Problem solved, physical axe builds can use it too. It leads very nicely into…I, um…uuumm. It leads nowhere. All physical damage support is over on the Ascendant + Order side. Ascendant, which is required for Berserker but not awarded by Berserker, and Order, which Berserker has nothing to do with. Why is a niche Physical + Bleed devotion, which are associated with Ascendant, Order and Eldritch, rewarding Eldritch + Chaos points? Now, granted, Falcon is rather efficient and ok for Bleed + Physical. It can lead you very naturally to get the Affinity required for Berserker, especially since Berserker can partially support its own Eldritch requirement. But there’s so much to do over on the Eastern side of the constellation map, between Ulzaad, Unknown Soldier, Azrakaa and Oleron (depending on what damage type between Physical and Bleed you lean more on), that I can’t imagine a build having the luxury to spend 6 points on an out of the way, point-inefficient devotion like Berserker.

So as the title suggests, I think it’d improve on the appeal of Berserker a lot if it were repositioned to the East, and awarded Eldritch + Ascendant affinity instead of Eldritch + Chaos. Otherwise, I think its cost : reward ratio (in terms of bonuses gained or affinity awarded) could use some major improvement to increase its appeal. For such a niche constellation, I feel it does very little to reward even the very few builds that would just naturally want to take it.

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I agree your statement though repositioning it means that something also gonna reposition to berserker’s place. Which is the main problem and force players to change a lot of their build’s devotion scheme. I think the only possible swap can be between owl or manticore.

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I don’t think that’s necessarily true. If what I’m saying is right (which it may not be, I’ve not made every build under the sun), then Berserker already barely appeals to anyone. It moving over to the east would not harm people’s builds as much as moving a more popular devotion would. In its new place, it could instead appeal to other people who may have been looking for some new options along that line of the tree to not have to take Owl or Toad to squeeze out some extra Ascendant affinity. Hell, you could probably swap it with Toad straight out if swapping was needed, because what is Vitality support doing on an Ascendant constellation anyway? Unfortunately, because of the ADCtH on Toad, a lot of builds that care nothing for Aether or Vitality end up taking it along the way anyway, so changing Toad’s position and Affinity rewards would have some massive reprecussions. I don’t think Berserker necessarily would though.

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Let me put it this way; I told you you’re right, no one uses Berserker and it should be more appealable. But, moving it to the east also means moving something to the west. And this means a possible change of their affinity bonus and requirements. Let’s say toad, very few people uses toad for it’s damage type, but it grants %3 adcth and racial damage along with some vitality resist. I used it with a lot of build to increase life steal a bit and ofc also to meet affinity requirements of other constellation. When you swap with toad, some builds will lost %3 adcth which might be crucial to them. I think the only devotions there can be swapped are Manticore and Owl. Owl, it’s stats not a big deal; Manticore it’s better to move west, already not good enough since it’s affinity bonusses most people skip it. I would Say Nighttalon then again it’s a bleeding damage constellation.

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I’m using Berserker in my current character. Your argument is invalid, case closed.

I don’t know much about building. I just pick what makes some sense to me at the moment. This character uses axes and damage types matched, so I went for it.
Required affinity came from: Falcon, Hammer and Fox.

No idea if Berserker sits at the right place in the sky, but I didn’t have to do any affinity acrobatics to reach it.

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Does your character dealing Bleeding damage?

That’s the application that makes sense. Although few of the nodes are weak. And Berserk is niche devotion. Rhowan’s Scepter is useful for trauma builds and swords devotion is always pick for pierce builds.

I would say nodes requires some buffs but don’t agree with OP about the affinity, it’s fine.

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My char’s dealing physical, trauma, bleeding and lightning.

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You don´t invest in Berserker to get 3 Green/2 Red.

You invest in Berserker if you have spare points to get Left Arm and maybe Chest (Physical Resistance) if you play Bleeding with an Axe (or Physical/Bleeding Hybrid).

The Right Arm is very unattractive, so better spent your points somewhere else. The requirements are easy: Just take Fox and Owl/Empty Throne. You need 4 Purple/4 Green for Huntress anyway which is mandatory for Bleeding Builds.

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